She was. Her father was the first premier, or leader, of the island after St. Kitts and Nevis gained independence from Britain in 1983. His estate included 25 acres on Nevis’s undeveloped south, and Ms. Daniel-Hodge signed an agreement to sell the land at some future date.
She didn’t know who the buyer was and didn’t think much more about it until late last summer, when she began hearing rumors that a wealthy Bitcoin tycoon had designs on the area.
Then, in October, came what locals have come to call simply “The Video.”
In it, Olivier Janssens, a 40-ish man with chin-length hair, a thousand-yard stare and a Teutonic accent, spends more than 15 minutes introducing viewers to Destiny, his planned semiautonomous paradise. Mr. Janssens, a Belgian cryptocurrency baron, delivers his pitch over an Enya-inspired soundtrack. Sweeping shots of yachts and sunsets off the Nevis coast give way to computer-generated images of people enjoying themselves by infinity pools on grassy terraced hillsides.